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What's next for conservative media?

Panelists say conservative media’s one goal is to report the facts and tell the truth. | AP Photo

“You have to stick with it, if you think a story is correct, if you think the facts are on your side and this is something that people are unfairly dismissing it, then you have to stick with it,” Rahn said. “Keep on reporting it, keep on reporting it out, and eventually good reporters — and there are good left-wing reporters, good establishment reporters — and they will come around to the story and they will pick it up.”

On a broader level, those in the conservative media say they’re looking for their next step in the field — and for some, that might involve more mainstream credibility and recognition.

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“I think that conservative journalism is mainstream, and it’s just journalism,” Townhall news editor Katie Pavlich said. “If you’re following facts — and that’s what we’re doing, we’re reporting — why is there this difference between what The New York Times does and what the Daily Caller, Breitbart, Townhall does?”

“The mainstream vs. conservative journalism stories, I think, that wall needs to be torn down,” she added. “Because the stories that conservative journalism are covering — the Menendez story, Fast and Furious — these are mainstream stories.”

Rahn agreed, noting that those identifying as a conservative journalist sound as though they are loyal to a movement or to a party. “We’re just loyal to the truth,” he said.

“This is a problem with us at the moment, self-identifying as conservative journalists,” Rahn said. “My feeling is that concedes way too much to the left, to the establishment press. A reporter is a reporter and all reporters have their point of view. We have a marvelous ideological diversity on the right. Somebody like Mike Riggs at Reason is going to approach a story much differently than say, Daniel Halper at The Weekly Standard or Alex Pappas at the Daily Caller. But we don’t need to identify as conservative journalists.”

That idea, however, marked a major divide among the panelists. Since Democrats and left-leaning journalists make up most of the mainstream media, according to Lars Larson, radio talk show host of The Lars Larson Show, a separate conservative journalism wing is essential for getting out stories that would otherwise be rejected based on ideology.

“Today I see left-wing reporters going after left-wing stories and ignoring other categories of stories, and in the commissioning of stories they are ignoring whole lines of inquiry because they don’t view them as valid,” he said.

And even if journalists at conservative news outlets say they don’t self-identify as members of the conservative media, Seton Motley, president & founder of Less Government, said that’s not likely to be accepted by the left-wing, mainstream press.

“You might as well put the conservative coat on, because they’re going to drape it over your shoulders anyway,” he said. “When The Washington Post wrote that ridiculous story about Menendez, which was basically a press release from Menendez’s office, defending him against your reporting, it’s in large part because they view you as a conservative journalist and therefore not credible. They said that. So why not embrace it, because they’re going to drape it on you anyway?”